Medtronic MiniMed 640G System

[Spicey245]

I have been thrown a curve ball today and have been offered this brand new pump by my DSN (just when I thought I'd decided on the Animas Vibe!) and she's given me a leaflet about it and some prices etc. Is anyone already using this and if so, what do you think? Is the CGM good? I notice it has SmartGuard which suspends your insulin if if detects you are going low. Another thing I like about it is the remote for the bolusing which doubles up as a blood glucose monitor (which wirelessly sends your BG to the pump).

Gah!! I was all set to go for the Animas Vibe but now I'm really not sure!!!

The sensors look a bit more pricey than the Dexcom I notice but not by too much?

Any advice/help gratefully appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Brava210]

Well Ive had the vibe for 4 years and I am switching to the 640g next week
It has a better cgm system and I like the option of quick wireless bolus from the meter.
I am finding the vibe a bit sluggish through the menus etc
But the vibes battery does last a long time - 2 months for me usually

 

[Spicey245]

Just looking at the sensors for the 640g, they are £52.50 per sensor if you buy them in a pack of 10 (£525) but they only last 6/7 days each which is going to cost me a small fortune if I want to run it a lot. When you say it is a better CGM system, what do you mean exactly? Is it more accurate than the Dexcom or do you mean the SmartGuard technology?

To run the Dexcom on the Vibe for a year, assuming the sensors last 3 weeks a pop, it would cost £1,187 (this is with the transmitter cost).
To run the MiniMed CGM for a year, with the sensors lasting 7 days max, it would cost £3,185 (again this is with the transmitter cost).

That's a considerable price difference!!

 

[Flowerpot]

The 640g pump does look great and I'm swapping from my Medtronic Veo in the next few weeks. The pump is pretty new and my clinic is waiting for the pumps to be delivered.

I've used the CGM part for 4 years, the Enlite sensors are the same ones used with the 640g and I haven't had any issues with them, they have been accurate and reliable however the Dexcom sensor users can get a longer life from each sensor so if self funding this is a very important thing to bear in mind. I can get a maximum of 7 days per Enlite sensor although others have managed to get a few days longer and my last transmitter lasted for 3.5 years. It depends how much you need the basal suspend /Smartguard technology, if you are hypo aware then the Dexcom sensors would be a less costly way to use CGM.

 

[Spicey245]

Our clinic are also waiting for the pumps to be delivered too. They do look lovely pumps but as you say, they are very new so it's hard to tell if they are really good as not many people have used them yet. Urgh, decisions eh?! I have heard mixed reviews about the accuracy of the Enlite sensors too. Some, like yourself, say they are great, others are saying they are not as accurate as they claim to be. I am hypo aware thankfully so I wouldn't be having to rely on the Smartguard but I will be self funding and the price is grating on me a bit. How are people getting more than 7 days out of the sensors? Are they just very carefully removing the transmitter, charging it up and then very carefully replacing it and restarting sensor? :-/

 

[CarbsRok]

The Medtronic sensors only last a day or two after being restarted the dexcom can go on for weeks so dex works out a lot cheaper dex is very accurate as well. Packs of 4 sensors for dex are £186 or £46 each If purchaised as a single sensor it's £50.

 

[Brava210]

Well I am getting my 640 in a week. I had the choice of Accu Chek Insight, I don't like the reliance on the remote.with it.
Animas Vibe, well I have had it 4 years and kind of fancy a change.
I have played with the 640g and it's quite nice although the clip on the back looks as though it's made of cheese.
I just think it may have an edge of the Vibe over the coming years as we are stuck with them for 4 years

It is a bit of a gamble but what's the worse that can happen

The Medtronic rep did say there is an offer on the CGM sensors etc, but they would say that


Gary

 

[Spicey245]

Well I am getting my 640 in a week. I had the choice of Accu Chek Insight, I don't like the reliance on the remote.with it.
Animas Vibe, well I have had it 4 years and kind of fancy a change.
I have played with the 640g and it's quite nice although the clip on the back looks as though it's made of cheese.
I just think it may have an edge of the Vibe over the coming years as we are stuck with them for 4 years

It is a bit of a gamble but what's the worse that can happen

The Medtronic rep did say there is an offer on the CGM sensors etc, but they would say that


Gary

Thanks Gary,

Yes, what's the worst that can happen! Well, I think I'm leaning towards the 640g, purely because it looks like such a lovely pump. And, to be fair, I wouldn't be using the CGM side of it constantly anyway as I do have pretty good hypo awareness. I think it would be initially very handy whilst getting set up on the pump though and getting all my levels sorted for different times of the day etc. I'm going to do a little more research into it this evening and finally make up my mind (once and for all! Lol!).

The Vibe is still a strong contentor though as it is a robust little pump and the CGM side is cheaper to run.

 

[iHs]

@Spicey245

The bg meter will transfer the bg result to the 640G without being entered manually like the Vibe but the bg meter for the 640G wont act as a remote
to deliver the insulin. Only the Insight, Omnipod and Dana R will do that. The downside to using specific teststrips is cost so dont be too surprised if you face some opposition from GPs who act on CCG guidance and try to get diabetics to use a cheaper bg meter even with using a pump, so get some advice from yr DSN as they might need to act on yr behalf to make sure that you get approx 250 strips every month as there will be some bg testing to be done to make sure the settings are ok every day.

 

[Flowerpot]

The new Contour Next Link 2.4 meter will allow you to send a manual or preset bolus to the 640g as well as sending the blood glucose result. It looks like a good addition to be able to use the meter as a remote.

 

[candi-girl]

i have it, the pump is great. i don't use cgm. if you want cgm get the vibe as will work out cheaper. anyone wanting just a pump the 640g is amazing!

 

[candi-girl]

you can do a bolus from the meter of however many units you like, it just doens't have the insulin bolus calculator on it..... YET! That has to be done from the pump. Say you test, fancy a snack, know how much insulin you will need, dial it up on meter and pump gives insulin.

 

[yingtong]

I am about to start pumping after 52 years of injections and I have decided to go for 640g,I have done much research into pumps and on the advice of DSN it meets all my needs,but it's a personal choice.

 

[Spicey245]

The bg meter will transfer the bg result to the 640G without being entered manually like the Vibe [B]but the bg meter for the 640G wont act as a remote to deliver the insulin.[/B]

@iHs

I believe the handset does act as a remote to do basic bolus (manual or preset) but it doesn't have the bolus wizard on it. :)

@yingtong

How exciting! It's going to be a massive change for both of us coming straight from MDI to these lovely new pumps!! I can't wait!! I just need to decide which one to go for. My hubby said I should go for the 640G as it's a much newer model of pump and it does have a few really nice features on it. :)

 

[Spicey245]

Not sure why my text is all red in above post? Lol!

 

[iHs]

On the older Medtronic pumps the insulin could be delivered using a tiny circular remote which loads of peeps thought useless, so not sure about the 640G?

 

[Spicey245]

Oh I see!

I wonder if people who are using the 640G are finding the remote of any use with this new pump? Would be interesting to learn.

 

[Brava210]

I think it's a good thing. But if you don't want to use it it makes no odds

 

[Diamattic]

You can also think of it this way.

Without the CGM portions he Vibe and the 640G are both 'just pumps' they both do the same things and likely perform well enough no one would tell the difference.

With the CGM, the 640G has a better feature set BUT the actual data it is getting from the Enlite sensors (from what i hear) is worse, and less reliable in real world use (although MM claims in tests its as good as Dexcom).

The CGM of the Dexcom system is much better, but the combination requires more button pushes on the users part. IMO pressing more buttons is worth it if you are getting better, more consistent readings from the CGM.

Also, i like to think that Animas will be releasing a new system as the vibes are now 4/5 years old, and they will want to compete with the 640G, i expect they will learn from all the negative things about the 640G and avoid those mistakes AND they will still be using the Dexcom stuff which gives better data. So there is potential to get a Vibe now, use it for like 2 years and then upgrade to the next, newer system later on.


EDIT - The Veo uses the Contour NEXT link as the 'remote' which tells the pump to bolus, which i would assume is what the 640G uses. The down side to this is the connection is one way. meaning the pump doesn't send data to the remote so you can bolus but you wont be able to see what you IOB is at that time, and it only does a normal bolus, not a combo/extended bolus. So its applicable in certain situations only, and it doesn't use the same algorithm to determine insulin doses that the pump does.

 

[Brava210]

Or, take the 640g now and change to the Animas in 4 years when they have ironed out any problems perhaps....